Immigrants? Foreigners? Munich citizens?

Like the majority of the Eastern European Jews, the Blechners are no
different from the other residents of Isarvorstadt. Mordechai and Mina
speak not only German, but also Yiddish and understand Polish. German
is the mother tongue for their sons. All the family hold Polish citizenship
after the founding of the Polish state in 1918.

With the rise of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the years prior to 1933
in Germany, all Jews in Munich and especially those who are not German
are increasingly discriminated against and marginalised. The persecution
reaches a new provisional climax at the end of October 1938 with the deportation
of Polish Jews, including the Blechners to the German-Polish border. Jakob,
Frieda and the parents are able to return to Munich at the beginning of
November. However Salo is interned in no-man's land between Germany and
Poland.

Mina, Markus and Salo Blechner try to leave via Switzerland. On the
27th August 1939 they arrive at the Swiss border town, St. Margarethen.
The Swiss border guards take away their passports telling them to wait
until the following day. Despite valid travel documents they are denied
entry and forced to go back to Munich.

Only a few days after their return to their empty apartment in Munich
the arrest of Polish Jews for their "own protection" is decreed.
The Gestapo detain Markus Blechner on the 9th September 1939 in Munich
and take him later to Buchenwald. Salo Blechner is able to avoid arrest
and flees a few days later to Berlin, where he is arrested shortly after
arrival.